Economic experts share Bitcoin opinions

Is Bitcoin's bubble about to burst?

Some critics argue being paid in bitcoin is encouraging people to gamble as the price of bitcoin keeps fluctuating.

Massimo Massa, professor of finance at the Business School of the World (INSEAD) said: “If an employee is receiving their salary in Bitcoin, they might as well be receiving lottery tickets.

“They are just participating in a game.”

However, Bitwage a platform that converts salaries in to cryptocurrencies has gained thousands of new users this year.

These days a lot of people are looking to get part, and sometimes all of their salary paid in Bitcoin.

Jonathan Chester founder of Bitwage

Jonathan Chester, founder of Bitwage said: “These days a lot of people are looking to get part, and sometimes all of their salary paid in Bitcoin.”

This year saw the company transfer $30million worth of wages for 20,000 users in the US, Europe, Latin America and Asia. Staff from Google, Facebook, Philips, the United Nations and the US Navy have all requested the service.

Mr Chester added he feels an advantage of this form of payment is that the individual is accumulating bitcoin regardless of the value or if that moment is the right time to buy in to the digital currency. As people can reduce the risks of volatility because they “only buy little bits over time.”

One issue that does arise with this new form of payment is taxes. It seems likely that as bitcoin continues to grow so will the development of the industry to pay taxes on the cryptocurrency.

Companies in the cryptocurrency business have been paying its employees for years in bitcoin. Japan’s GMO has recently expanded in to cryptocurrency trading and crypto mining.

Crypto mining is the process by which individuals release new bitcoin in to the market.

The company hopes the opportunity to receive this new form of payment will help its workers to “nurture and develop cryptocurrency literacy.”

Singapore blockchain company TenX pay its employees bonuses in its own cryptocurrency Pay.

Pay can be traded on digital exchanges and were issued in an initial coin offering (ICO) in June raising $80million for the company.